He was named Rome’s Ambassador to the world last year, awarded as “Global Icon” by GQ magazine, but he was also barred entry from a suburban Japanese restaurant in Melbourne for not wearing the correct attire, on a Friday, at lunchtime, in 37° heat. A non story that became global news. Whether he’s telling the story, or people are telling a story about him, life’s always interesting if you’re Russell Crowe. An “Indoor Garden Party” is , he says “an event, a band, a happening. It’s fluid. The personnel changes, but it’s always big. It’s like a festival where I gather people I admire, musicians and storytellers, and we put on a show.” The concept started in 2009 in a pub outside London owned by the chat show legend, Michael Parkinson, and it has kept going in a haphazard, ad lib way ever since. With this configuration, Crowe brings to the foreground The Gentlemen Barbers, who he has been quietly tinkering with for the last four years. “There’s an attitude about this band. It’s got a groove. We do a lot of story songs, but we also know we are here to blow out the cobwebs and give the audience a good night”. Grabbing time between the shoots of films like Unhinged, Thor: Love & Thunder, The Greatest Beer Run and The Pope’s Exorcist, the band have been gathering, sometimes for weeks at a time just playing, recording, talking, gelling. The result went on stage in Coffs Harbour in January to packed houses, and it was decided, as they say, to “take the show on the road."